1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to personalized sound systems, including an ear-level device adapted to be worn on the ear, and the use of such systems to select functions to be carried out by companion devices such as mobile phones or other hand held devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Ear-level devices, including headphones, earphones, head sets, hearing aids and the like, are adapted to be worn at the ear of a user and provide personal sound processing. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/569,449, entitled Personal Sound System Including Multi-Mode Ear-level Module with Priority Logic, published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US-2007-0255435-A1 is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. In US-2007-0255435-A1, a multi-mode ear-level device is described in which configuration of the ear-level device and call processing functions for a companion mobile phone are described in detail.
However, use of ear-level devices to provide user input for configuration of the devices, or to invoke functions that are executed by or supported by companion devices, are limited as a practical matter by their size and the manner in which they are worn by the user,
For example, a user of an ear-level device with a mobile phone must often operate the mobile phone to invoke call functions such as redial, call-back or favorite dialing. Also, when changing the mode of operation at the ear-level device for a multi-mode device, the user input at the ear-level device can depend on difficult to recall button sequences and the like.
It is desirable to provide an ear-level device that can be more effectively utilized with companion modules given limited user input options on such devices.